Burning Bush Holiness

               This weekend, we are going to be continuing our “Fire” series, and will be speaking to the story of Moses and the burning bush.  Though we get caught up around many different things within the story, one of the main elements is simply a picture of God’s holiness.  The bush burns with that mysterious holiness of God which at the same time draws us in and makes us fall back in fear.

          We are going to unpack that story in worship with some detail, but this morning, a friend sent me an amazing email which offers an inspiring example of what it means to live a “holy life”.  On Thursday, President Obama posthumously presented the Congressional Medal of Honor to Chaplain Emil J. Kapaun. 

 

          President Obama’s remarks indicated that Chaplain Kapaun served during the Korean War and was among the first American troops that hit the beaches. During a surprise attack by 20,000 Chinese soldiers, he dragged the wounded to safety.  He stayed during an ordered evacuation, tending to the wounded and dying.  When over a dozen wounded Americans were about to be gunned down, Father Kapaun pleaded with a Chinese officer and convinced him to call out to his fellow Chinese.  The shooting stopped and they negotiated a safe surrender, saving those American lives.   Then, as Father Kapaun was being led away, he saw another American -- wounded, unable to walk, laying in a ditch, defenseless.  An enemy soldier was standing over him, rifle aimed at his head, ready to shoot.  Father Kapaun marched over and pushed the enemy soldier aside.  And then as the soldier watched, stunned, Father Kapaun carried that wounded American away.  He carried that injured American, for miles. When other prisoners stumbled, he picked them up.  When they wanted to quit -- knowing that stragglers would be shot -- he begged them to keep walking.  In the camps that winter, deep in a valley, men could freeze to death in their sleep.  Father Kapaun offered them his own clothes.  They starved on tiny rations of millet and corn and birdseed.  He somehow snuck past the guards, foraged in nearby fields, and returned with rice and potatoes.  In desperation, some men hoarded food.  He convinced them to share.  Their bodies were ravaged by dysentery.  He grabbed some rocks, pounded metal into pots and boiled clean water.  They lived in filth.  He washed their clothes and he cleansed their wounds. The guards ridiculed his devotion to his Savior and the Almighty.  They took his clothes and made him stand in the freezing cold for hours.  Yet, he never lost his faith.  If anything, it only grew stronger.  At night, he slipped into huts to lead prisoners in prayer, saying the Rosary, administering the sacraments, offering three simple words:  “God bless you.”  One of them later said that with his very presence he could just for a moment turn a mud hut into a cathedral. That spring, he went further -- he held an Easter service and used the stole shown here in the picture as he celebrated Mass inside that prison camp. 

          It is interesting, one of the men in the audience at the ceremony Thursday was Herb Miller, the soldier that Father Kapaun saved in that ditch and then carried all those miles.

          For the church throughout the centuries, the stole represents holiness.  It reminds us as pastors and clergy that we are “set apart”, we are supposed to be different and testify to a holy God who desires a holy creation.  And yet, it was used so powerfully in the midst of so much pain and mess.  That is a powerful picture of what we will call Sunday, “burning bush holiness…”  Come join us as we talk more about it!   See you there